6 forest fruits with medicinal properties

Many will remember with nostalgia those excursions from their childhood that they undertook as a family at the end of summer and how, perhaps, they took the opportunity to collect forest fruits that nature gave them in their path.

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, sloes, guillomos and blueberries reach their optimal degree of ripeness at this time, with some altitudinal differences, a state that these wild berries announce through the brilliance of their red or bluish pigmentsthat attract the eye and the palate.

These fruits are devoured by numerous forest creatures: thrushes, warblers, capercaillie or even bears… And in doing so they contribute decisively to the dispersal of the species.

But also, The custom of harvesting forest fruits is widespread in the countries of central and northern Europe, where it is a tradition to use them to make appetizing juices, compotes, cakes and a variety of liqueurs. It is also in many mountain regions of the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian mountains.

The elaboration of ratafías, spirits such as pacharán, and also syrups with sloes, blueberries and blackberries it was well known to our ancestors. Beyond its undeniable culinary uses, the fruits of the forest have a remarkable therapeutic utility which has been known since ancient times.